Blog

An informal conversation and guide to the sometimes confusing world of volunteering.

If you are reading this blog you’ll know that TimeBank is a national volunteering charity and we definitely believe in walking the talk. So every opportunity we get, we volunteer.

As we’ve brought on three new staff members over the summer and not everyone across our offices in Scotland, Birmingham and London had met, we decided the time had come to take a day out of our working lives and volunteer together to get to know one another, do something fun and live and breathe the TimeBank ethos.

I won’t lie - the day started off with a few challenges. The staff member organising it was sick so we had to arrange to pick up all our kit (you can’t volunteer unless you’re wearing an orange TimeBank T shirt!) and in the midst of sorting this half of the team went ahead leaving me and a colleague to get the next train – which unbelievably was delayed and then cancelled because of ‘a swan on the train’ …

But once we eventually arrived and started volunteering at Organiclea, a workers cooperative growing vegetables and fruit in Chingford, the day properly got going. There were endless roles for all sorts of volunteers around the huge site like picking apples or planting winter salad – our job though was clearing a rhubarb patch of thistles and bindweed. It may sound a little dull but I can’t tell you the satisfaction of looking back across rows of rhubarb released from its stranglehold of weeds and empowered to grow! What was even more fun was that we could all do it together and spend time with different people – weeding is a levelling experience - you are all doing the same, challenged by the same depth of root issues and trying to work together to finish in time. And of course we could all chat while we did it.

Once we’d finished and cleaned our tools we headed off to Walthamstow to have a pint and a Thai meal to celebrate our day of volunteering. Small as it is, our organisation is split across three offices so being able to put a face to a name makes picking up the phone to each another so much easier. It makes us feel like colleagues and it ensures that we truly work as a team and see ourselves as TimeBank employees who can step up to cover and support one another’s jobs as necessary whatever the geographical distance.

What heartened me most was that by the afternoon the conversation had turned to what we would do for our Christmas Party volunteering in December – the Birmingham team decided they’d organise it and we would source something ‘Christmassy and meaningful, hopefully working with one of our community partners in the West Midlands’. We always volunteer at Christmas and lead from the front, encouraging companies to volunteer before their parties and then go out and celebrate with their colleagues – a shared experience to talk about and a feel good factor to head home with, in the sure and certain knowledge that you’ve done something amazing by serving dinner and chatting to an elderly person, packing Christmas boxes for children overseas, or decorating a school or hospice. If you’d like to know more about Christmas volunteering, do take a look here.

Ali is project co-ordinator for our Shoulder to Shoulder Erskine project, which supports veterans and their families in the often difficult transition to civilian life. Here she tells of the impact the project has had on one veteran and his volunteer mentor.

It’s a lovely summer day at Erskine Home in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and I’m sitting outside Harry’s café with Dougie, a veteran, and Cathy, his volunteer mentor. They have been meeting twice a month for nine months and with all the banter going around, it’s easy to tell they know each other well.

I first met Dougie when I dropped in at Gardening Leave, a charity which provided horticultural therapy for veterans, now Glen Art. Dougie still attends horticultural activities based at the Erskine Home gardens twice a week where he has been going for seven years.

Having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been difficult for Dougie and horticulture at Erskine is his safe place. We all know how easy it is doing the same routine, but Dougie was in real need of a change. He needed that bit of extra support to enhance his confidence, self-esteem and reduce his anxiety. As he says: “It’s hard to get out of your comfort zone.”

I introduced Dougie to Cathy, and with a good sense of humour, I knew she would be good to lift his spirits. “Cathy and I clicked. I can say anything I want and she listens. It is easy to talk to each other,” he says.

Dougie wanted to focus on goals for the days he wasn’t at Erskine. They first got to know each other by going for a coffee and a chat, going to different museums and setting a plan of action.

Driving his own car is fine for Dougie, but he is anxious about being in crowds and noise, which means using public transport can be an issue, as well as shopping at the local supermarket. This is where Cathy has been a great support as a mentor. With her help, Dougie has set goals to reduce feeling anxious. They will both go on the same train – sitting in different carriages so Dougie can call if in need of help.

They also go to the local supermarket with the aim of Dougie sourcing a few items, while Cathy stands outside. They’ve also built up the length of time spent shopping. Dougie says: “Goals were difficult at the start, however Cathy is good at pushing me; my confidence and self-esteem have improved and I can now go to shops on my own and not feel as anxious going to new places.”

Dougie is also enjoying finding new activities with Cathy, such as swimming and trail walking. “It works both ways,” says Cathy. “I’m surprised I enjoyed places I never thought would interest me. I see things from a different point of view and it’s been a lot more interesting than I expected.”

Goals have been going so well for Dougie that he has been able to move home, he’s gained skills in budgeting from the local money advice centre, and he is increasing his physical fitness and contacting old friends. He is also looking to get back into employment after Cathy told him about Employ-able, a project she had learned more about at a TimeBank Mentor Information day. Employ-able, funded by Poppyscotland and run by the Scottish Association for Mental Health, provides one-to-one support, workshops, training and advice to veterans in search of a job.“It’s important as a mentor that I signpost Dougie onto others types of support too,” says Cathy.

Dougie came along with me to speak at a focus group about the importance of asking for help and the way support from a mentor can help with the transition to 'Civvy Street'. But it was his last comment that really got me. He said “You know, Cathy made me human again. We are going to stay friends.”

If you would like to find out more about Shoulder to Shoulder Erskine, call Ali on 07437 437 867, or email ali@timebank.org.uk. You can also find out more here.

Over the last two and a half years an amazing 2,158 people have completed English classes taught by volunteers on our Talking Together project.

It’s given these learners the confidence to visit their doctors without taking a family member to translate. It’s taught them how to speak with emergency services in the event of an accident. It’s enabled them to talk to their children’s school, their neighbours, and the bus driver. And ultimately it’s helped them to become a stronger part of their community.

On a personal level, working as Project Co-ordinator, I have been inspired and moved by both our learners and volunteers. At the final class of one of our courses, I sat with a small group of Somali women who told me and the volunteer teacher what it’s really like to fast for Ramadan. They also shared harrowing stories of their experiences of war in Somalia. Some of these learners came to the class knowing only a handful of English words. Though their stories were told in broken English, the fact they were able to tell them at all shows the wonderful progress they had made in just 12 two-hour long classes.

Our volunteers are equally inspirational. Most come to volunteer for the project having no teaching experience. They are often visibly nervous, even to the point of shaking, ahead of their first class. But when I visit later classes, I see them standing confidently at the front, sharing jokes with their learners. Many of our volunteers have enjoyed the experience so much that they have continued teaching, either in the UK or abroad, after their classes have finished. Some have even gone on to gain qualifications in teaching and turn their new found passion into a career.

We're now excited to be starting the next phase of Talking Together in London, Birmingham and Leicester, and we're looking for more volunteers to teach English. After attending our three day training session, you will be teaching two 2-hour long classes each week to a group of up to 10 adults, using our specially designed curriculum. All our learners speak very limited English (if they speak any at all!) and most are Muslim women, predominantly from Somali, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds.

If you would like to apply or find out more about the role, visit the Talking Together page on our website where you can find our contact details and download the application form. We’d love to hear from you!

I’m always banging on about the importance of CEOs making a regular appearance at the coalface – seeing their work in action and drawing down from that when they go back to their day job. Such was my unexpected experience recently.

Our Employee Volunteering Co-ordinator was ill and without thinking through the fact that we had an event the next day, the only possible thing to do was send her home to bed. It transpired my diary was the most flexible the next day as I’d blanked it out to write board papers so I ‘volunteered’ to run the day.

I arrived at Canbury Gardens just on time to meet our volunteers from BMT Group, an organisation which regularly undertakes volunteering opportunities so they were prepared and full of anticipation. Andy from our partner organisation Quadron joined us and gave a briefing on the day – what to expect, what we were doing, why and how, along with health and safety – and how best to use the tools we had.

He then took us to the garden where we would be working. The team from BMT had been lulled into a false sense of security as the park on the river where we met was beautifully kept, and I think they wondered why they were there. But Andy led us to Canbury Community Garden, formerly known as the gardener’s yard.

It was essentially an overgrown plot at the heart of the park where pretty much everything that could have been dumped had been over the years since the hut became dangerous and then left to grow over. Recently discovered and procured from the Council for the community by Marilyn Mason, the space needed clearing before any plans could be made for its use within the community.

The team set about their task straight away and I popped to the supermarket for supplies, water, biscuits, fruit, chocolate etc. to keep everyone going and make sure they stopped for a well-earned break.

It’s incredible what eight people can achieve in a day - nine if you include my inadequate contribution! The thing is, you can’t just sit around taking pictures and tweeting or hovering next to the First Aid kit in case someone hurts themselves - you simply have to take part and start hacking away at brambles! A huge amount was chopped, cleared, swept and ‘discovered’ – all carefully watched by a series of birds, mostly robins, watching out for worms and bugs to be revealed for lunch! When Marilyn returned later that afternoon she just couldn’t believe what had been unearthed nor the size of the space that had now been created. I’m sure that with only one or two more days like this the community will take over planting and cultivating their very own secret space.

We finished off around 4pm just before the rain started, with a huge sense of achievement, a team enthused by what they had accomplished, and a day enjoyed away from the office with colleagues they don’t always work with. Off I trundled back home – frankly shattered and with new respect for the TimeBank team who run these days throughout the year across London.

Almost 50 volunteers from The Copyright Licensing Agency, Publishers Licensing Society and Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society arrived at Nunhead Cemetery for an environmental volunteering day. We couldn’t have hoped for better weather - the sun was shining, not a rain cloud in sight!

After being introduced to me and representatives from Quadron Services, a specialist green space management company, Southwark Council and Friends of Nunhead Cemetery, the volunteers were divided into teams. One set to work in the Lewisham View area of the cemetery. It was so overgrown with brambles, you could no longer read the gravestones. By the end of the day, the entire area was clear and a huge pile of cuttings was ready for the bonfire.

Another team laid 100 metres of anti-slip matting on a footpath to make it safer for visitors and prevent erosion. Other volunteers cut down thin trees to create a hedge to preserve the wetlands meadow. By the end of the day, the volunteers had created an impressive 50 metres of hedging.

After a well-deserved lunch, Jeff from Friends of Nunhead Cemetery told us all about the history of the cemetery. This helped the volunteers to see the significance of their work in maintaining a historic and important London landmark.

The teams who manage the cemetery were hugely impressed by the amount of work the volunteers accomplished. With limited resources and time, this kind of work would take much longer without the support of volunteer groups. The volunteers worked incredibly hard; all felt a sense of ownership over their team’s area and were eager to ensure that the work was completed by the end of the day. I see this motivation and hard work at every employee volunteering event we run, and I’m continually impressed by how much can be achieved in just a few hours.

Nicola Girling from The Copyright Licensing Agency said: “We all thoroughly enjoyed our time at Nunhead Cemetery - it was a brilliant team-building event, with a great sense of achievement at the end of it.”

Many of the volunteers said they had never volunteered before, and many others had never done this kind of environmental work. I heard some say with surprise that the day had been much more enjoyable than they’d expected. As well as being beneficial to the local community and natural environment, volunteering really benefits the volunteers themselves. These activities help to develop team-building, communication and problem solving skills, not to mention the practical skills gained!

If you’d like to get together with your workmates for a day of environmental volunteering, do get in touch at calley@timebank.org.uk or give me a call on 0203 111 0700.

If you work in volunteering it is, to some degree, expected that you do some volunteering yourself. If you don’t it’s kind of like being a barista but never drinking coffee.

Anyway, and without wanting to perpetuate the myth that people simply don’t have the time to be volunteers these days, I simply don’t have the time to be a volunteer. Or, to be more accurate, I don’t have the time to be what I’ve frustratingly heard called a “proper volunteer”, that person who gives hours a week, week in week out, to their chosen cause.

But, BUT! in my defence, and sticking with the labels, I am an episodic volunteer (as many of us increasingly are) as I have volunteered for organisations in the past, helped out at various somethings-or-others where needed and volunteered at a variety of events.

Nevertheless, I decided that I wanted to do a bit more and so looked into how I could have a more regular volunteering experience that I could commit to with the confidence that I would have the time to fulfil my duties.

I had wanted to be involved with a charity for some time and took care to find one where my voice would be heard, where I could contribute something useful and where I knew my values were reflected. TimeBank is that charity.

I’ve been a Trustee for about a year now and genuinely love the experience. The Board is a fascinating mix of Trustees from various backgrounds and our work in helping to steer TimeBank and support our amazing CEO is teaching me new perspectives and proving useful in my day job, previously as the volunteering lead for a government agency and currently as Head of Volunteering for a major charity.

This Volunteers' Week I would urge anyone who thinks they don’t have time to be a volunteer to think again. Volunteering doesn’t have to be something you do every day, week or even month. Also, volunteering isn’t a purely altruistic act – I can assure you that you will get something out of it too. Getting involved with a cause or organisation that you care about is incredibly rewarding – not just for the people you are supporting but for yourself. Personally, I have gained knowledge, increased my confidence and honed skills. Deciding to support a cause for whatever reason that is – to meet people, gain experiences, learn skills, give something back – is the first step, then it’s about making sure that the time you give fits in with your life. As modern life becomes busier and more chaotic, it might seem like people have less time to “give” but episodic volunteering needs to be embraced. Volunteers' Week is a great time for organisations that use volunteers to reflect on whether they welcome and support episodic volunteers like me.

So to answer my own question, “Is a Trustee a proper volunteer?”- very much so!

Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK – and it’s taking place from 1-12 June 2016.

Here at TimeBank we are passionate about volunteering, but we are equally passionate about challenging people’s perceptions about what volunteers can do. Don’t get me wrong – l’m not advocating that volunteers replace paid staff, or do the jobs no one else in your organisation wants to do. What we do believe is that there are many roles, once considered the sole preserve of professionals, where volunteers can complement the work they do.

In the last few years TimeBank has delivered some truly ground-breaking projects – from supporting young people transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health services into adult services to teaching English in a women’s refuge. All delivered by our incredible volunteers. TimeBank’s latest project is a partnership developed between us and Prospects, the education, employment and training company, at HMP Feltham. Prospects currently provide education for all young men within Feltham Young Offenders Institution (YOI). Our new programme, Through Together, will offer mentoring support to young people currently detained at the YOI and during the difficult transition to life after release.

Volunteer mentors and mentees will be matched while the latter are still at Feltham YOI. This is when a relationship will be established, so that at the time of release the young people will have an already-established support mechanism. After release volunteer mentors will continue to provide mentoring support to the young people for an additional three/four months to support them to find employment or enter training or education courses.

So no usual opportunity, and some extraordinary volunteers required. We usually like to match young people with mentors of a similar age and gender, so for this project we are looking for young men who are aged 25 to 40, willing to travel to Feltham YOI and prepared to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. If you think you would like to be involved in this ground-breaking project, and are available to volunteer for the next six months please drop me an email at andyf@timebank.org.uk for more information.

On Friday I was in Leicester to visit the Shama Women’s Centre, one of the delivery partners on our Talking Together English Language project and celebrate with the participants their successful completion of the course.

Although a few days before the parade everywhere in the town was blue or had flags or pictures of footballers flying! It’s incredible how something as simple as football can unite a city as diverse as Leicester. It’s diversity, of course, and the desire to integrate that makes our English Language project so popular and such a success.

As Chief Executive I don’t get out to our projects as often as I’d like but when I’m invited to attend something like this I always say yes and I’m always blown away by how incredible they are and the phenomenal difference something we take for granted can make to an individual’s life. Our volunteer-led English language courses have been funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government to help support predominantly Muslim women to learn basic, functional, pre-ESOL English – to enable them to talk to their child’s school, make a doctor’s appointment or go shopping on their own. Not speaking the language of the country in which you live is hugely isolating and can leave these women living and communicating within a tiny community, almost all family. Learning just enough English to do the basics has truly empowered them and fundamentally changed their lives, enabling them to take a train into the city for the first time, or help a child with their homework.

It’s a huge privilege to meet them and see their faces light up as you present the certificates – excited and grateful that the CEO from London has come to their class to say well done! The truth is it was me that was excited and grateful to be there and have my photograph taken with them, to see the impact that our classes have had, to meet one of our incredible volunteers who had worked with them to give them the confidence to speak English and to enable them to change their lives through a simple, and crucially, free 12 week course. Of course as always when I go to one of our grassroots partners the welcome and hospitality was fantastic and I certainly never leave hungry!

We very much hope we will be in a position to run more of these courses over the coming months and change more lives, so do keep an eye on our website for volunteer opportunities.